Cracker Barrel is firmly in the crosshairs of consumer backlash, but conservative activist Robby Starbuck believes the negative reaction boils down to something deeper than just a new logo and reflects a broader abandonment of traditional American values.
Consumers quickly spoke out against Cracker Barrel after it unveiled a new logo that eliminated the image of a man leaning on a barrel and instead just has the restaurant’s name in black text over a yellow barrel-shaped backdrop. The chain also redesigned the interior of its restaurants, ditching the kitschy American aesthetic and replacing it with a slick modernist motif.
“The American people are sick of having our culture and heritage stripped from us,” Starbuck told Fox News Digital.
“All these things that are nostalgic Americana are constantly being stomped on, and we’re being told that there’s something wrong with it, that we should be ashamed of it in some way, that it needs to be replaced with something more inclusive or more driven by these DEI characteristics,” he continued. “I think people are just sick of it. We’ve had enough, and we don’t want our whole country stripped down to where we have no semblance of, you know, that sort of nostalgic Americana culture.”
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Starbuck, a Visiting Fellow for the Capital Markets Initiative at The Heritage Foundation who acknowledged that he is “pretty well-known at this point for turning companies away from wokeness,” believes Americans appreciate Cracker Barrel’s iconic, pre-remodeled decor.
“They feel at home when they’re around it,” he said.
Starbuck called Cracker Barrel’s changes “Brand Destruction 101,” and said the logo change was simply the tip of the iceberg.
“They’re trying to ditch their previous customers and vibe, right? They want to say, ‘No, we’re going to be fresh and modern,’” Starbuck said.
The conservative activist pointed to a pop-up event that Cracker Barrel hosted on Thursday in New York City that included line dancing and live country music. The “A Taste of Country, Anytime” event featured classic Cracker Barrel menu items, rocking chairs, games, line dancing and a performance by country music singer Jordan Davis, who starred in a new commercial for the company. The closest Cracker Barrel to New York City is about 45 miles away in Mount Arlington, New Jersey.
“We note that we had an opportunity to partner with Jordan Davis at this event while he was in town for the Today Show, similar to how we have brought the goodness of country hospitality to our guests with NASCAR races at Speedway tracks like Ft Worth, Atlanta, and obviously our home race in Nashville, the Cracker Barrel 400. These events are part of a larger initiative to bring our signature country hospitality to people all over the US whether they’re lucky enough to live close to a Cracker Barrel or not,” a Cracker Barrel spokesperson said.
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“They’re essentially marketing to a clientele that doesn’t exist, right? Because there’s not a Cracker Barrel in New York City. So why are you doing this event there? And it’s about virtue signaling to a group of people that frankly don’t go to Cracker Barrel and never have gone to Cracker Barrel, don’t want to go to Cracker Barrel,” Starbuck said.
Starbuck revealed to Fox News Digital that he had previously been tipped off to “woke” issues inside Cracker Barrel and the attention surrounding the controversial logo change prompted him to dig a little deeper.
“What we found is really that they are totally out of alignment with their customer base,” Starbuck said.
Starbuck said he found “very concerning actions,” including a “deep and long-term association” with the Human Rights Campaign, which bills itself as a group that has “led the way in fighting for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion” since 1980.
The HRC has wielded immense power in the corporate world in recent years with its Corporate Equality Index. The index, which, on its website, is defined as a “national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees,” would assign companies a score based on how inclusive the HRC determined they were to gay employees. Companies would then jockey to increase their scores by instituting more DEI-related policies, some of which, critics alleged, went too far.
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The HRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cracker Barrel was originally given a score of zero when the CEI debuted in 2002. Later that year, the franchise added “sexual orientation” to its list of characteristics protected by its employment discrimination policy. Over time, Cracker Barrel’s score increased. It achieved a score of 80 in 2021 after it had taken some high-profile pro-LGBT stands.
Cracker Barrel told Fox News Digital it “has not participated in the Human Rights Campaign Index or had any affiliation with HRC in several years.”
“I don’t believe this was just about a logo change and a fresh new look. I think this was about rejecting what they see as sort of a redneck old image that they had, right? And it’s a slap in the face of their customers, because there’s nothing wrong with the image that Cracker Barrel already had,” Starbuck said. “That’s where you see a big separation between the executive class and the American people.”
As an example, Starbuck posted a packet on creating safe spaces he said was distributed within its corporate offices in “recent years,” which talked about not tolerating “heterosexist, cisgenderism comments and actions.”
Cracker Barrel said the image wasn’t part of a company training.
“We note that image [shown] is not part of any Cracker Barrel training,” a spokesperson said. “Cracker Barrel’s trainings focus on educating leadership and employees on business practices and policies and include required training under federal, state, and local law.”
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Cracker Barrel has stood by its recent moves and said 87 percent of respondents in their research either loved or liked the new logo.
“Our values haven’t changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel haven’t changed,” a spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital.
“And Uncle Herschel remains front and center in our restaurants and on our menu. He is the face of ‘The Herschel Way,’ the foundation of how our 70,000-plus employees provide the country hospitality for which we are known,” the spokesperson continued. “Cracker Barrel has been a destination for comfort and community for more than half a century, and this fifth evolution of the brand’s logo, which works across digital platforms as well as billboards and roadside signs, is a call-back to the original and rooted even more in the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all back in 1969.”
A spokesperson also said the feedback from guests and team members has been “overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic about the refreshed dining and shopping experience,” but a “vocal minority” may feel differently.
Cracker Barrel did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Fox News Digital’s David Spector, Lorraine Taylor, Peter Burke, and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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